Watermelon Cocktail!

The other day I came home from work and before I had time to change out of work clothes and sit for a few minutes, J-lo was making cocktails! Very enjoyable. See below for his comments and recipe. The good fun: he used watermelon from the farmer's market. So a little tropical fun with local produce!

Watermelon Daiquiri

From J-lo:

This is roughly what I put in, but I messed around with it a few times.

4 cups of watermelon - cubed and frozen
1/2 cup rum
1/4 cup orange liqueur
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
simple syrup
ice

Add watermelon and liquids to a blender. Mix until smooth. Add ice to bring volume back up to top of blender. Mix again. Taste and adjust until you get the ingredients right.

I had no orange liqueur, so I tried orange vodka. That really didn't bring enough sweetness, so I used more simple syrup than you might normally need. Another option would be to try orange juice.

The other idea I would try is to use watermelon flavored rum, which could enhance the flavor and sweetness.

Curried Calzone? Maybe!

This is very interesting and I'm so very happy with the results. I'll get the recipe worked out in the near future; but in a nutshell. Leftover pizza dough. Potatoes. Great spices. Onions & Jalapenos. A little leftover chicken. Wow, these were great and super filling. I also made a yogurt dip with Greek yogurt, cucumber, dill, salt & pepper. A perfect meal.

Like I said, I'll work out the recipe in the next few days and post later. But in the meantime, you must enjoy these photos.

The main flavor base. Onions, jalapeno, curry spices!

Some chopped green beans and boiled potatoes.

This was the basic filling. I had some leftover pollo verde (Green Chicken w/Cilantro and Chilis) that I chopped up and added as well. Great compliment, but totally not needed.

The filling wrapped up in dough, given an egg wash and a sprinkle of salt.

Golden goodness.

These were fairly large. If I make them smaller in the future, they would be amazing little appetizers for a party.

I'm very happy. If only I could get a proper name for them.


Aloo Bonda maybe; an Indian potato and spices dumpling. Not really authentic I'm sure, but again, great flavor.

Pollo Verde

This is another one of those dinners that does not necessarily look that great in the photo and the recipe isn't really exact, but it's pretty dang tasty and in my case, used up some extra peppers we picked up at the last farmer's market.

Pollo Verde, a marinade for your chicken

In the food processor add the following:
One Anaheim chili, seeds removed, chopped in large chunks.
Three or Four Poblano chilis, chopped into large chunks
Three or Four Jalapenos, seeds removed, chopped into large chunks
One bunch Cilantro (rinsed) and stems removed
Three or Four Garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
Juice of two Limes
One TB salt
Few grinds of pepper
One tsp cumin & coriander


Whiz until combined and pastey. If it’s dry and lumpy, add some olive oil or a little water.

Roughly clean chicken parts of your choice (for this amount of marinade, I had one chicken, cut into eight parts). Cut off excessively fatty parts, but leave most the skin on. Rinse in cold water & pat dry. Place the chicken in a large zip bag, pour green sauce over the top. Put in a bowl (to catch any spills) and stick in the fridge for at least an hour, up to eight hours.

Grill or roast until done, depending on the size of the piece of chicken 14-20 minutes.


In this case, I roasted the chicken for about 20 minutes. Some of it was a little over done, some just right and super juicy. The skin had been removed, so a few of the leaner pieces (breasts) had a tendency to dry out a wee touch. I placed the chicken on the baking sheet and spooned over extra of the green marinade. Then I put chunks of potatoes that I had coated in olive oil around the chicken put the whole mess in the oven until done. The little fat that was left in the chicken rendered out and mixed with the olive oil on the potatoes and created some very luscious taters. I was very happy with the results.

A NOTE ON THE HEAT OF THE PEPPERS: The three peppers I used this time had three types of heat levels, which was represented in the quantity of each. The Anaheim was actually hotter this time around. So I used only one. The Poblano was very mild. The Jalapeno was mild, but the seeds were spicy. When it was all blended, with the cilantro and lime and spices, what was left was a zippy, green, grassy, herbal, vegetable flavor, not spicy/HOT, to the chicken. If you are looking for spicy/hot you can certainly leave all the seeds and/or use more of a particular pepper. I like spicy, but I also don't want to mask the flavors of the rest of the dish.

Decadent Dip

Hey all...had to share this great little treat that a co-worker shared! I got to have a taste at a pot luck last week and it was great. Totally Decadent and I don't think this could be any easier. I'm looking forward to making this the next time I need to make a quick treat. I can imagine you can use no-fat cream cheese if you're a little worried about calories!


Turtle Cheesecake Dip

2 8oz. blocks of cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
2 T brown sugar
½ cup mini chocolate chips
1 cup of chopped pecans (divided)
Chocolate syrup
Caramel sauce

Combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, brown sugar, choc chips and half of the pecans.

Form the dip into a loaf and cover it with the remaining pecans. Refrigerate.

Before serving top it off with chocolate syrup and caramel sauce. Serve with vanilla wafers or graham crackers.

Happy Frakkin' Labor Day

Celebrate with a visit to
Ben's Chili Bowl.
A Washington Monument for 50 years!!!

Even at 330/4pm, there was a line out the door when we arrived. And about a 20-25 minute wait inside.

Start with a Chili Half-Smoke with mustard, onions and Ben's famous Chili.


Finish with Chili-Cheese Fries.

And yet again, I stand there staring lustfully at their cakes and milkshakes and with a great degree of difficulty, I pass them by. I just can't subject myself to that much discomfort at once. Someday I will have both. But until I install the cast iron stomach, I can't do it all at the same time.

Congratulations to Ben's for 50 great years in DC. 50 years of standing against all sorts of adversity and becoming a community landmark we are all proud of. I've been honored to know you for the last 10 years and look forward to many, many more visits in the future!

Crying over my cheese!

We're back from our overnight to Philly and it was a great trip. We arrived at the train station and were greeted by the Duchess. We headed back in the direction of her place and stopped for bagels! Then checked out her new condo. Lovely!

There was a little road trip to the Longwood Gardens...wonderful...worth the trip and price of admission. Check out the fountain show with music, the Conservatory and the Idea Garden.

Following the Gardens (several hours by the way!), we drove down the road a little more to a wine tasting room in a strip mall. Paradocx Wine. I'll tell more about that in a later post.

Then trouble started. What to do that NIGHT? Stay local in the Philly burbs and head into the city for dinner??? We made the perfect choice!

All Fermentation, All The Time
The menu is all about fermentation--fermented grapes, barley & hopes and milk!
Wine, Beer & Cheese.

Tria
Wine, Cheese, Beer, Cafe
1137 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107
215.629.9200

Important Note about wine! Click to embiggen.

Bruschetta with tomato, basil and mozarella! Delish. The tomatoes were very jammy and rich. Not sun-dried.

Bruschetta with roasted eggplant with balsamic and parmigiana. This had pretty good flavor. The balsamic was very important. I couldn't taste the parm. And the crusty bread was also very important, as the eggplant is squigee, so the crunch is needed.

We ordered three cheeses to serve as dinner with the bruschetta. This was:

CHERRY GROVE TOMA (Lawrenceville, NJ • Cow-Raw) Rich butter and berries prevail in this sweet, sharp and certified organic delight.

I liked this cheese. Well, let me start by saying, I really only like cow's milk cheeses, not goats, not sheep, not bleus... I'm from Wisconsin...that's what we did when I was living there. So, all the cheeses we had at Tria were cow's milk cheeses. And they were three different types. This was semi-firm and buttery, served with a honey-mustard spread.

These are the other two cheeses:

LEFT:
BOERENKAAS (Friesland, Holland • Cow-Raw) Mouthwatering butterscotch, fruit and nuts explode in dense, crystalline hunks.

This cheese made my eyes water. I was crying over this cheese it was soo good. A firm cheese, similar to a Parm. The crystalline hunks in the description are amazing. Salty bombs of flavor. This cheese was served with this lovely condiment. Our waitron said it was grapes, white raisins and mustard seeds, sort of a chutney. Wonderful accompaniment.

RIGHT:
PAGLIERINA (Piedmont, Italy • Cow-Pasteurized) The love affair between Robiola and Camembert: sweet butter and gentle grass, languid ooze.

This was the funniest cheese I've had. Think Brie. But in reality, it's a slightly tangy, super soft butter. The only way to eat this cheese was with a knife, spread onto bread. I suppose you could eat it with a spoon...if you like to eat straight butter with a spoon. This cheese was paired with cherries. That didn't work for me. That's ok.

All the cheeses at TRIA come from Murray's Cheese in NYC.

We still wanted more after the cheese, so we ordered the Italian meat plate. There's all sorts of goodies on here...I don't remember what's what...but it was all good. Especially the little dark round pieces in the middle, with some of the roasted peppers in balsamic and a drizzle of the roasted garlic oil (on the bottom right). YUM.



For wine, I stuck with one wine. Well, I ordered one glass and didn't like it. Jason like it the same as his, so we traded. So I ended up drinking this for the evening:
RODITIS “FOLÓI,” MERCOURI ESTATE, ’07 (Peloponnese, Greece) Ancient grape from mythological region, exhibiting refreshing fruit, white pepper and peach notes.

I didn't get any peach notes. I did get some of the pepper and citrus flavors similar to a Sauvignon Blanc. I'd order this again.

Philly

source

We're out to the City of Brotherly Love for a quick trip. See you soon!!!

Introducing...

...BOOMER...

She arrived last week with an unknown name...well, we knew her name, but needed one that suited her better.

She's officially named "Boomer."

Stick around...I'm sure you'll hear great stories about her as we move along...including how she thinks my ear lobes are fun toys while I'm sleeping!

Adventures in American Wine Tasting

This is fun! Check it out....

Joel Stein set out to taste one wine from all 50 states — a patriotic experiment to see if good wine can really be made anywhere. He looked for bottles that cost from $15 to $20 to make it a fair comparison (and to keep TIME from going under). “I rated each wine Excellent, Good, Bad or Undrinkable,” says Stein. “As for the methodology, wine critic Gary Vaynerchuk, my wife and I tasted 10 randomly selected wines. Another 20 were downed at a wine-tasting party with a dozen friends. One wine I tried while visiting the state that made it. And my wife and I tasted the rest together. By doing so, we gained an appreciation for the country. The country, in this case, being France.”

50 American Wines at Time.Com.


So where does Maryland stand?

Landmark Reserve from Boordy Vineyards, north of Baltimore, recieved a good rating. Not bad! I think I've had a bottle of their Petite Cab and really enjoyed it, part of their Icons of Maryland series.

Virginia recieved a good rating as well.

Sorry...no DC.

My homestate of Wisconsin recieved a rating of Bad...I'm not surprised. Too wet, too cold. There might be some regions in the south-western part of the state that could possibly be suited for proper, tradional wine growing with hilly, rocky soil and good warm, sometimes hot summers...but there's tobacco and cattle there...a far more profitable industry than wine; for Wisconsin. As Joel says, stick to beer, which sucks....that's pretty true too...we should stick to cheese! And I'll smack anyone who doesn't like Wisconsin cheese!

The excellent wines: California (are you surprised?). Colorado. Kentucky. Michigan, Traverse City...J-lo we'll have to find a bottle of this and get it?. North Carolina. New Hampshire. New York. Oregon (I've had some great wines from OR.) Pennsylvania (this is exciting, we're heading up to Philly this weekend and might do a wine tasting...we'll see!) Texas (great more bragging rights). Washington (good!)


I found out about this post from MattBites.com.

Corny

If you've been wondering what else you can do with all your fresh corn on the cob you're getting from the Farmer's Market...here's a great idea!


Corn Fritters! The Houndstooth Gourmet, a local (Virginia) food blogger who enjoys her local market in Del Rey (great little neighborhood!), has shared this recipe and it looks good. I can't wait until our next market, so I can get MORE corn and do MORE fun stuff...including these fritters!

2 Dinners/2 Nights

Wednesday Night: Cashew Chicken

I don't normally get artistic when I'm sauteing my veggies, but I loved the colors!

Also exciting here, the peppers are from the Cheverly Community Market. Normally this recipe calls for bell peppers. I used three different types that we picked up at the last market. Some jalapenos and two others I'm not very familiar with. One of the non-jalapenos was really spicy, but great flavor. I tasted it to get a sense of the heat and all "Wooot that's HOT!" then I handed a piece to Jason to try and he's all "Mmmm...HOLY CRAP." He didn't hear me! Ooops.

Here's the final dish. I like to add the cashews at the very end when I have a sense of quantity and how much we'll be serving and how much we'll be saving for leftovers. Well, we ate it all...we had company...but we ate it all. Very delicious.


Thursday Night: Steak Diane w/Glazed Carrots

Yes, I know...I talk about getting great things from the market, then I go and use baby carrots....from some place other than here! I had green beans...but they were bad! Gross and slimy. So I went with the other veg I had. It's ok. The main portion of this dinner is from the Market...

For the glazed carrots. Cut them into roughly the same bite sizes. Add to a skillet with 2 TB of butter and 1 1/4 cups of water. Season with salt and pepper and add 2 TB of brown sugar. Simmer until the carrots are tender and the water has evaporated, leaving these luscious, glazed carrots.

What makes Steak Diane is the sauce. Broth, mustard, tomato paste, Worchestshire sauce, shallots and some cream. I love the swirl of cream here.

The final dinner. The steak was purchased from the vendor at the Market who sells frozen meats. This is the second cut of beef we've tried from this vendor...this cut was better...sadly, I don't have the name of it. Overall, a very tasty dinner.

Happy Meal

Start with the recipe for Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops!


Get your 'crust' ready. Bread crumbs. Parmesan. Some herbs if you like. Salt & Pepper.


The perfect side dish for this recipe is creamy mashed potatoes. But to really make it perfect, make some crispy shallots and crispy garlic to sprinkle on top of the taters. A side benefit. When you are making them crispy in the oil, they flavor the oil a little bit, so you have flavored oil for the chops!


Coat your jobs and then fry for about 4-6 minutes per side over medium-heat. Don't let the heat get to hot of you can burn the chops before they are cooked through.


Serve. OMG. So good. I love this dinner...I ate like an elephant and had seconds...I really didn't need seconds.


And another photo...why not?!!!!

Theme?

I was searching for a recipe on this blog and saw two photos from this year.

Do you notice a theme?

Photo 1
Photo 2

There are actually two things that make these photos thematic…

Based on scientific processes…those themes could be:
1: I enjoy beverages.
2: I own one shirt.



In other business...this weekend was very nice and laid back. We had dinner at our favorite restaurant in DC on Saturday night to celebrate Lord & Lady B's birthdays. Sunday we took in a double feature and little dinner.

Last night I made this recipe. We used bacon we bought at the Cheverly Community Market. Very meaty & chewy. Little fat. Needed salt.

The Tale of Two Soups

There was yesterday's soup. And then there was last night's soup...

Let us begin...

There is fresh sweet corn!


Removed from the cobs.


Use the backside of your knife to scrape out extra bits from the cob, including some of the sweet corm milk.


Then begin the base of the soup. Butter. Good. Onions & Garlic. Great! A mild chili pepper (Anaheim in this case). Season with some Cumin and Coriander. And a wee bit of Chipotle chili powder (this will add barely a hint of smokiness and helps balance the sweetness of the corn, without bringing much heat.


Add the fresh corn and a splash of water, about a cup. Simmer until tender and fragrant.

Puree the whole thing in a blender or food processor until smooth.


Serve with a wedge of lime, green onions and some crushed corn tortilla chips.

Delicious. The corn flavor in this soup is out of this world. The creamy soup paired with the crisp, crunchy chips is a lot of fun! You don't have to have the chips, but you'll miss the excitment.

Creamy Corn Soup
inspired by the Everday Food recipe. The Everyday Food recipe really focuses on the corn as the sole flavor, which is nice, but I wanted a little extra depth of flavor with my soup, so I added the onion, garlic, chili and spices. I'm very happy I did. If I added extra of the chili and spices I could probably change the name to Spicy Creamy Corn Soup, but this dish is very mild, yet rich and full of great flavor...so I'm keeping the same name as the recipe that started this adventure.


Serves 2 for dinner

6 ears of corn, kernels removed
1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, smashed
1 mild chili pepper, diced
4 TB butter
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp chipotle chili pepper
Salt/Pepper to taste
Tortilla chips (optional)
Lime wedges (optional)
Scallions (optional)

Clean the corn by removing the husks and silk, then cut the kernels off the cob into a large bowl.

Melt the butter in a large pot and add the onions, garlic and chili. When they are soft, add the cumin, coriander, chipotle, salt and pepper. Allow the spices to become fragrant before adding the corn kernels. Add one cup of water and simmer for 10 minutes, until the corn is tender.

Working in batches, process the soup until smooth and creamy in a blender or food processor.

Return to the pot and simmer over low heat until ready to serve. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.

Serve with crushed corn tortilla chips, lime wedge and scallions if you like. Enjoy.

Name this Funny Thing!

I picked this up at the Community Market this weekend. What is it?

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Sunchokes/Jerusalem Artichokes! Crazy Huh? They look like very knobby ginger. But what does this tuber taste like? Keep reading.

But before you start doing anything with them, please give them a good scrub. You don't need to peel them.


Tonight I'm making a bisque. Sunchoke Bisque!

Potatoes, Onions, Garlic and Sunchokes.


Make sure all your veg boil/simmer in a pot of broth. The bay leaf just happened to be floating dead center. I had nothing to do with that.


The whole thing gets blended in a blender or food processor until silky smooth.


Add a wee touch of cream for extra silkiness.


And serve for dinner! We both enjoyed this nutty, earthy soup. I had to make some changes from the original recipe, still very good.

I think it'd be best as a side soup (first course) to something else. Or if you're not having anything, if you can add some sliced chicken or have some crusty bread on the side, you'd be well off. Overall, a very good meal. I don't know much about sunchokes, but I'd love to serve this in the fall/winter months. Very hearty and warming.

Sunchoke Bisque (adapted from Local Flavors by Deborah Madison)

for 2 large servings or 4 smaller servings

2 TB Olive oil
2 cups diced potatoes
1/4 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, smashed
1/2 pound sunchokes (cleaned. no need to peel, just get all the dirt and sand off. cut any really dark spots off)
1/2 tsp ground celery seed
2 bay leaves
3 cups broth (veggie broth if you're veggie, chicken if not)
salt/pepper
2-4 TB heavy cream (optional)

Clean and dice all your veggies. I peeled the potatoes. The sunchokes were broken into smaller knobs and the larger ones were cut in half.

Heat a large pot over medium high heat. Add the olive oil. When shimmering, add the next four ingredients (onions, potatoes, garlic, sunchokes). Saute for a few minutes, allow a little color to
develop on the veg and on the bottom of the pan.

After about 5 minutes add salt (about one full teaspoon) & ground black pepper, the celery seed and bay leaves. Pour in the broth. Stir and scrape up any extra bits that stuck to the bottom. Bring the pot to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Cover and cook for 20 minutes.

When the veggies are tender, remove from the heat. Now we need to puree the soup. A blender works better. Fill about half way with soft veggies and some broth. Give it a whiz until completely smooth. Work in batches. Cover the blender with a towel to help protect from any possible splashing. Especially if you have too much in the blender, sometimes the heat can cause the top to blow off when you turn it on. So, have a towel over the top and hold the top with your hand.

When all the soup is processed, return to the pot and bring to a very low simmer. Add the cream and stir to incorporate. Serve hot with a garnish of your choice. Chopped scallions, drizzle of oil, crushed hazelnuts, sprig of fresh herbs, croutons...enjoy.

Calzone

I mentioned in the post about the Pan Pizza, that I reserved 1/2 the dough for a later use. I bagged it in a zip top bag and left in the fridge for two days. Last night I used it up! To make a calzone. My first calzone.

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To start, you need the dough and sauce from the Pan Pizza recipe. Using half the dough, roll it out into a circle, about 12-14 inches wide.

Make some filling...your choice. I used 1/2 cup of browned, crumbled sausage. 1/4 cup of sliced pepperoni, cut into quarters. Nuke the pepperoni for 30 seconds to remove some extra fat, again, see the Pan Pizza recipe. I also had about 1/4 cup of diced onion and 1/4 cup diced pepper. Start by browning the sausage, then add the onion, peppers, then the pepperoni. Stir together. Add enough pizza sauce to bind all the ingredients together.

Now add the filling to the center of the pizza dough. Add cheese. I used about a cup of shredded mozzarella and a sprinkle of parm. Now you need to seal up the Calzone.

Stretch the dough over the filling and begin to pinch a seal. Before you begin, lightly moisten the edge of the dough. This will help it seal together as you do the seal. Hard to describe, but start on one side and pinch. Then lift half of that pinch and an unpinched section. Pinch. Move half a lenght over...you can see the pattern in the photo above. My instructions aren't great. Sorry.

Once sealed, slice in some vents for steam to escape and if you like, brush the top with olive oil or egg wash. I used some olive oil.

I then sprinkled the top with a little more parm. Now bake for 20 minutes in a 400 degree oven.

Remove the hot and steamy Calzone from the oven. Allow to rest for a minute.

Devour! This was very satisfy. Serve with extra sauce if you like.

Very Satisfying! I'd make it again this week, if I knew I could get away with it. YUM!